Son preference
Topic: Measuring Development: Income, HDI and Sustainability · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 8 "Comparative Development Experiences of India and its Neighbours"
Meaning
Son preference means that families value boys more than girls. It is found in India, China and Pakistan. NCERT names it as the reason for the low sex ratios in all three countries. It shows up as sex-selective abortion, neglect of girls, and families that keep having children until a son is born.
Example
Census 2011 recorded India's child sex ratio (ages 0–6) at 918 girls per 1,000 boys. The Economic Survey 2017-18 estimated about 63 million "missing women" and 21 million "unwanted girls". It called the pattern a son "meta-preference". NFHS-5 (2019-21) found an overall sex ratio of 1,020, yet the sex ratio at birth was only 929, so the bias at birth continues. The policy responses are the PCPNDT Act, 1994, which bans finding out a baby's sex before birth, and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (January 2015).
Don't confuse with
- Sex ratio: this is the measure (females per 1,000 males in India). Son preference is one cause of a low sex ratio.
Related concepts
- Population growth rate
- Population density
- Sex ratio
- Total fertility rate
- Replacement level fertility
- Urbanisation
- Dependency ratio
- Demographic window of opportunity
- Ageing population
- Population pyramid